Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/291

 Southern Genius. 285

Another writer of accepted authority, Lieutenant Commander Barnes, United States Navy, after giving a history of the torpedo ami its partial, but ineffectual, use by the Russians against the allied fleets in the Crimean war, says :

" Having traced the history of the torpedo from its first inception to its use in recent European wars, we shall now advance into a more interesting period of its history, when its employment was accom- panied by results so unexpected and extraordinary, that it seems to have sprung with one bound into the foremost rank of the novel and tremendous engines of war which have so completely changed the aspect of modern battlefields and scenes of naval conflicts. This sudden and astonishing development of a previously derided and apparently insignificant theory has been due, first, to the naval supe- riority of one of two parties to a stupendous contest, which called for all the ingenuity and boldness of which the weaker side was capa- ble to counteract ; and, secondly, the appearance upon the scenes of conflict of ironclad ships impenetrable by ordinary artillery and indestructible by the usual machinery of war."

And again

" Under such a pressure, the pressure of dire distress and great necessity, the Rebels turned their attention to torpedoes as a means of defence against such terrible odds, hoping by their use to render such few harbors and streams as yet remained to them inaccessible,

or in some degree dangerous to the victorious gunboats.



" Within a very short period after the inception of the design a system was formed, so far perfect and complete that our progress upon the water was materially checked."

These and other equally well accredited testimonials establish the primacy and supremacy of Confederate officers in the employment of these novel and terrible engines of naval warfare, and pronounce the highest encomiums upon their surpassing skill and ingenuity. Who introduced the first ironclad "upon the scenes of conflict ?" The history of the Merrimac vouches the fact that the first iron- clad ship of war ever used in battle was designed and prepared for action, and first carried into action, by Confederate officers, thus still further revolutionizing the science and art of war.

Modern builders of war-ships have made little progress on the design of the Merrimac, and the gallant and distinguished Con- federate naval officers who prepared and fought her in that memor- able naval conflict of the 8th and gth of March, 1862, may well